FEBRUARY 11, 2021
57% of Medicare Advantage plans now offer meal
benefits, while 46% provide transportation to appointments. Diabetes is the
most targeted disease for uniformity flexibility by a wide margin.
Source: MiIlliman
Washington, D.C. (February 11, 2021) – Better Medicare Alliance, the leading
research and advocacy organization supporting Medicare Advantage, released
a new data brief prepared by the actuarial consulting
firm Milliman that examines offerings of both traditional supplemental benefits
and Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) in Medicare
Advantage from 2020 to 2021.
Over
the last year, the number of health plans offering supplemental benefits grew
in 36 out of 41 categories measured, including 15 out of 17
traditional supplemental benefit categories, 4 out of 5 expanded supplemental
benefit categories, and 17 out of 19 SSBCI categories. Benefits that are most widely offered in Medicare Advantage
include vision (provided by 96% of plans), hearing (93%), fitness (92%), and
dental care (87%).
This
year, 57% of Medicare Advantage plans now provide a meal benefit while 46% of
plans offer transportation to and from physician appointments. Nearly a quarter
of Medicare Advantage plans provide acupuncture as a covered supplemental
benefit.
Among
SSBCI, food and produce and meals (beyond a limited basis) were the most widely
provided benefits, reaching more than 1.9 million and 1.5 million total
beneficiaries, respectively.
The
Milliman analysis also examines the clinical conditions for which Medicare
Advantage plans most frequently offer supplemental benefits allowed under
SSBCI, which requires the supplemental benefit to be targeted to chronically
ill beneficiaries. Beneficiaries with diabetes
were the most targeted population for these extra benefits by a wide
margin. For 2021, 293 Medicare Advantage plans offer reduced
cost-sharing and/or additional benefits to support diabetic beneficiaries in
managing their chronic condition in plans with nearly 1.5 million total covered
beneficiaries.
Notably
for 2021, use of SSBCI for behavioral health diagnoses (e.g., anxiety,
depression, or substance use disorder) also grew significantly, with
135 Medicare Advantage plans providing reduced cost-sharing and/or additional
benefits in 2021, as compared to five plans the year prior. Congestive heart
failure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) also ranked near the
top of the most targeted disease groups.
“This analysis provides unique insight into the ways that Medicare
Advantage continues to innovate and enhance benefit offerings, even in the face
of the extraordinary circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Allyson Y. Schwartz, President and CEO of the Better Medicare
Alliance. “In 2021, benefits like vision,
hearing, fitness, and dental care that remain unavailable in Traditional
Medicare became nearly universal in Medicare Advantage. In addition, over
three-fourths of Medicare Advantage plans provide discount cards to help keep
beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs on medications low, and 57 percent of plans
are providing meal benefits that can be particularly meaningful to seniors
during the current pandemic. The growth of extra benefits and lower
out-of-pocket available to seniors, including those particularly targeted to
individuals with chronic conditions, demonstrates the value that Medicare
Advantage continues to deliver for millions of beneficiaries.”
Schwartz continued, “More than 500 Medicare Advantage plans provide reduced
cost-sharing, expanded benefits, or some combination of the two in order to
help meet the needs of over 2.2 million beneficiaries. Diabetics, those facing
behavioral health challenges, and beneficiaries with congestive heart failure
and COPD are among those most helped by this important flexibility.”
Read
the full brief from Milliman HERE.
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